


Finding Owain

by Kamikaze2007



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Don't let the title fool you this is no light-hearted crossover, Gen, offscreen major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 09:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7354972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamikaze2007/pseuds/Kamikaze2007
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a little Owain runs off into the depths of the castle, his mother starts to panic about his well-being. Years later, when he goes missing outside the castle, his cousins have to find him to deliver some sobering news.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding Owain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Signel_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/gifts).



One downside to raising children in a huge castle was that it was exceedingly easy to lose said child in the sprawling multitude of hallways that ran the castle's length.

That being said, one upside to being raised in a huge castle was that it was pretty easy to slip out of mom's grasp and scamper off into one of the multitude of hallways that ran the castle's length. All it took was one moment of carelessness on Lissa's part, and the next thing she knew, her son's hand was no longer in hers and she could hear his excited babbling echoing down the hall to her left. Unfortunately, this realization didn't come to her until several moments after Owain had scampered away, and of course, the first person to hear about it was the child's father, who was mere steps ahead of her. “Gaius? Do you have Owain?”

The telltale sound of her husband taking a sucker out of his mouth proceeded, “nope, can't say I do.”

“Well I don't,” she replied, raising her hands to signify the absence of her child.

Gaius turned his head back and cocked an eyebrow. “Weren't you supposed to have him?”

“I guess,” Lissa said with a shrug. “I must have spaced out.”

Gaius turned back to face forward and shrugged. “That sounds like a sticky situation.”

Lissa looked back at the otherwise empty hallway and bit her lip. “Shouldn't we look for him or something?”

“Sorry Princess, but we're already going to be late to this meeting, and you know how your brother gets when we're late...well, later than we usually are.” He could hear her start to protest, but raised the hand holding his candy quickly enough to startle her into silence. “We can get to him later, or we can send one of Blue's attendants to go look for the little guy,” he said, waving the sucker slightly as he spoke.

“But what if he's in trouble now and we end up being too late to help him?” Lissa asked, fearing for her child's safety.

“What kind of trouble could he possibly get into?” Gaius countered. “The only somewhat dangerous part of this place is the armory, it's on the other side of the castle, and he can't have gotten that far yet.”

Lissa slumped forward. “Right... I guess he can wait for a little bit.”

“Glad we agree,” Gaius said, sticking his sucker back in his mouth to signify the end of the conversation.

No matter how many reassurances she was given, it didn't change the fact that Owain was alone in the castle, and it was something that ate away at Lissa and made the next ten minutes spent getting to the meeting feel like half a full day. When they finally made it to the ambiguous meeting, Lissa was so worried that the first thing that came out of her mouth was the request to borrow one of Chrom's assistants for a little bit. Chrom, bewildered that she didn't even bother listening to his scolding, looked to wife.

In response, she rolled her eyes. “I dunno, I'm not the one who asked.” She nodded at Lissa and raised her hands innocently.

“Right,” Chrom responded. He turned his attention back to his sister and gave her the same look. “Why do you need an assistant of mine?”

Lissa took a deep breath before spilling the events of the trip over without pausing. “Owain ran off and I don't know where he is and we didn't have time to look for him because it was gonna make us even more late to this dumb meeting that I don't even know what it's about and what if he's hurt somewhere?”

When she finally ran out of breath and had to stop, Chrom raised a hand to stop her. “Understood.” He nodded at one of his attendants. “Can you look for the kid with the carrot-top?”

The attendant nodded and scurried off as Sumia tilted her head in thought. When prompted, she said, “that's weird, our kids have disappeared as well. Do you think they're together?”

“Sumia, they didn't run off, they were under supervision the whole day,” Chrom said.

In response, Sumia smirked. “Oh yeah? And who was supposed to watch them, huh?”

Chrom's face flushed and he looked anywhere but the other people in the room. “Er, that's not important.”

Gaius barked a laugh and put a reassuring hand on Lissa's shoulder. “I see losing kids runs in the family. Now with two people looking, I'm sure they'll all turn up.”

The other royal spouse was less amused by this development, crossing her arms once more. “Come on, Gaius, that's three kids missing. Aren't you worried?”

Gaius shrugged and Lissa playfully punched his arm. “You know, someday little Owain's not gonna want anything to do with us, and when that day comes, you'll be sorry that you weren't more doting on him when he was young,” she told him sternly.

Gaius shook his head. “I doubt it. We'll spend plenty of time together for the rest of his poor, royal little life.”

Lissa crossed her arms and shook her head. “We'll just see about that.”

Chrom raised a hand to stop conversation and draw attention to himself. “Guys, we need to get this meeting thing taken care of,” he said in that stern voice he assumed when telling people what to do.

After a resounding confirmation, the two couples attended to the very important, highly official and super ambiguous meeting they had planned.

Once it was over, Lissa was the first out of the room, excusing herself as politely as possible to the official guests. Seeing this, Gaius smirked and followed after her after remarking, “usually I'm the one who's out that fast.” Knowing the reason for her sudden departure, Gaius caught up to her and left Sumia and Chrom to deal with whatever came next. When he reached his wife's side, she was visibly worried. “Hey Princess, don't get yourself all worked up. Can't be good for your health.”

Lissa disregarded Gaius' advice and marched deeper into the castle. “Okay, if you were a child, where would you be?”

“Hell if I know,” Gaius answered. “I'd be in a castle, and that'd be cool enough for me.”

Lissa smacked him n frustration and groaned loudly. “You're not helping!”

Before Gaius could respond, they both stopped dead in their tracks when they heard a loud screeching a few halls down. It sounded more like a small child playing than getting themselves hurt, but Lissa's worried motherly instincts were not in any condition to distinguish between the two, so she shot down the hall to the source of the sound.

Moments later and with a breathless Gaius hot on her heels, Lissa rounded a corner into a seemingly empty hallway. However, before they could run down that one, they saw the last sight they were expecting. From one of the adjacent hallways came the tiniest, cutest procession one could imagine. Up front was Owain, marching like he was some sort of military leader and brandishing a tiny, Falchion-shaped letter opener in front of him like he'd seen his uncle do so many times before. He was followed closely by Lucina and Cynthia, the latter of which making herself evident as the source of those screeches from earlier by excitedly pitching in whenever Owain barked an order. Lucina brought up the rear, making sure her sister didn't fall behind and giggling wildly whenever Cynthia decided to chime in. As the group turned away from her and ventured down the hall, Lissa was tempted to let this toddler train continue, but she simply couldn't resist laughing, both out of relief and how hilarious this scene was. Her laughs startled the kids and they whirled around and their eyes widened.

“M-mom? Dad?” Owain scrambled to hide the letter opener behind his back and stood up straight, while Lucina smiled nervously and Cynthia screeched again, recognizing his auntie Lissa.

“Hey there, kids,” Lissa said, kneeling down to the kids' level. “What are you doing over here?”

Owain perked up and brandished his mini Falchion again, holding it as high as his tiny arms could. “We're going on adventures, mama!”

Lissa's face lit up as she laughed once again. “Oh really? Where were you going?”

Owain shrugged and shifted his weight to one foot. “I 'unno, that's why it's called a adventure!”

Gaius and Lissa shared a laugh, which caused Cynthia to laugh along, which in turn made Lucina laugh. All this laughter around him made Owain blush. “Hey, this is a forreal adventure! We're the Justice Cabal!”

“Ju'tice!” Cynthia parroted as best she could. “Ju'tice ball!”

Lissa laughed and picked up her son, who squirmed a bit as he was lifted into the air. “Yeah? And what does the Justice Cabal do?”

“How does he know a word like cabal?” Gaius quietly asked no one in particular. “What does cabal even _mean_?”

Owain waved the letter opener around and smiled as he said, “We fight evil! Our adventure was to find evil and beat it dead!”

Lucina and Cynthia shouted confirmation, causing Lissa to laugh again. “Oh how brave of you! But you made me so worried when you ran off like that, don't you know?”

“Oh...” Owain's face fell and he looked to the ground. “Sorry, mama. I didn't mean t'scare you.”

He sniffled and any attempt Lissa could have made at being angry melted away. “Oh, don't worry about it,” she said in a calming voice. “Just ask us for permission next time you go off adventuring, okay?”

Owain's face brightened and he nodded eagerly. “Right, mom, I promise I'll always ask!” After receiving praise for this, he held up the letter opener. “Like my sword? Lucy found it in her dad's room!”

That promise he made was one he kept for the rest of his childhood, and even further into his life. Unfortunately, it wasn't a promise he could keep forever.

* * *

 

As the years wore on, the war his family was involved in grew, and with it grew the sense of perpetual dread that hung over the heads of him and his comrades. Even Owain found it difficult to keep up his optimism after a point, because carrying on as if nothing was wrong in a world where his father died for him was almost too much to bare. He had to keep up appearances for his friends, but it was difficult once he was down half his parentage. Little did he know it only got more difficult from there.

He got lucky and found himself outside the capital of Ylisse on the day Grima destroyed the castle, so he didn't get to witness the miraculous escape Lucina and Cynthia made from the maw of the evil dragon. He also wasn't present for the aftermath, which was a good, long time of the sisters crying into each others' shoulders about everything that had happened that day. Once they had collected themselves in the ruins of the capital city, they started doing the only thing they thought to do, which was gather everyone and see if they could retrieve the Fire Emblem.

“Hey, where's Owain?” Cynthia asked as they set out. “I didn't see him fighting with us.”

Lucina took a shaky breath before saying, “I think they got to him. He's dead, too...”

Cynthia put a finger to her chin and hummed. “That doesn't sound right. Didn't he have somewhere to go a couple days ago?”

Lucina's expression lit up as the memory came back to her. “Oh, that's right! Lissa sent him away a few days ago! Gods, where do you think he went?”

Cynthia shrugged. “I dunno, but we should look everywhere we can. We can't do this without...oh no. He's gonna be devastated when we tell him.”

Despite thinking she had cried enough, Lucina could feel the tears welling up again. “Oh, you're right...”

Cynthia shook her head and perked up, putting on the fake smile she knew Owain would. “Nevermind that,” she said. “We'll worry about that when we get to him. Now let's find Owain and bring the Justice Cabal back together!”

Lucina managed a small smile. “You're right. And hey, you pronounced it right this time.”

Shaking off Cynthia's confusion, Lucina lead her sister on their adventure, with her sword at her side, her sister at her back, and her cousin hopefully still alive somewhere.

It took many days to find their cousin, and they even managed to pick up a few friends along the way, so by the time more than a week had passed, hope was starting to fade that they would ever find Owain.

“Hey, don't get yerself so down,” one of their friends assured them. “I don't think any a' those ugly zombie guys would've been able to get to him. He's way too good to get himself offed that easily, y'know?”

“I guess,” Cynthia sighed. “But nobody else is with him! What if he gets hurt and nobody's there to help him?”

The friend who assured them shrugged and held his tool of choice up. “Well, we'll just hafta find him so I can heal him before that happens, huh?”

Lucina smiled and nodded. “You're right. Thanks, Brady.”

“I do what I can,” he shrugged.

Suddenly, another of their comrades spoke up, pushing up the bridge of his glasses as he did. “Hold a moment, does that look like a blacksmith's to anyone else? Perhaps he's in there repairing his blade.”

“Laurent, you're a genius,” Lucina said before bolting in the direction of the building.

Once inside, they found a very large, very angry looking man toiling away over a fire and looking about ready to attack an orange-haired boy with the hot blade he was making.

“Owain!” Cynthia yelled, causing the boy to turn quickly. His eyes lit up at the sight of his cousins and they all embraced in the middle of that room, which further angered the blacksmith.

“Get out of my shop, you lunatic!” He bellowed. The kids quickly made their way outside (one of them crying at the sudden volume of the man's voice) and continued their reunion after putting some distance between them and the shack.

“Hey, what're you guys doing here all together like this?” Owain asked as he surveyed who all had come.

Lucina countered with a question of her own. “I think the real question is what are you doing here?”

Owain's eyes narrowed and he held his hand in front of his face. “I'm doing what my mother asked me to do before sending me off. I'm in search of the legendary blade; Mystletainn! She says it's the only blade in existence that can, for lack of a better term, play nice with my sword hand. With it I'll lay waste to all my foes.”

“Is that what she sent you off to do?” Lucina asked, receiving a nod in return. She exchanged a glance with Cynthia and sighed. “I see. She must have known, then.”

“Known what?” Owain asked.

“I think she knew too,” Cynthia said, only glancing at Owain when he asked his question.

Lucina took a deep breath and looked at her cousin. “Owain, the castle was attacked shortly after you left.”

Owain gasped and his hand dropped from his face to his side, resting on the handle of his sword and ready to battle. “What? How could that be?” Cynthia and Lucina didn't respond, instead opting to look at the ground to avoid watching the multiple emotions come over Owain's face. “Did everyone make it out okay?” When no response came, his hand fell from his sheath and his voice grew frantic. “Lucy, Cynthia, come on, you gotta talk to me. Is everyone okay?”

“Owain...”

Suddenly, he grabbed Lucina's shoulders tightly and shook her, forcing her to look at his face. “ _Is my mother okay?_ ” He demanded, tears forming in his eyes.

Lucina didn't even notice the pain of having her shoulders grabbed, feeling only pain for her cousin. “Owain, Lissa didn't make it out of the castle.”

The reaction was immediate. In the blink of an eye, Owain's hands had fallen from Lucina's shoulders and he took a step back, wanting to say something like “I don't believe you,” or “where is she really?” but the only thing that came were tears.

Cynthia stepped forward and offered him something she had saved from the attack. It seemed to be a piece of a staff. “This is part of the staff she was using when she...well, I thought she would want you to have it.”

Owain took the piece of staff from her and stared at it sadly. In a few short minutes, he had gone from a royal child with one parent to an orphan with only a piece of a tool to remember his parents by.

“We have a plan,” Lucina said, trying to break through to him. “We can't sit around and be sad about this forever. We're going to try to find the Fire Emblem and fix all of this. Our parents won't have died in vain, but only if we get moving immediately.”

Owain nodded solemnly and gripped the staff tight. “You're right. Mom wouldn't want me to mope around like this.”

“That's the spirit!” Cynthia cheered. “And now the Justice Cabal from when we were kids is back together!”

Owain couldn't help but smile at this. “You're right. And you pronounced it right this time.”

“Why do you guys keep saying that?” Cynthia demanded, stomping her foot. Lucina and Owain shared a laugh before the group started moving once more.

Owain brought up the rear so nobody would see him cry to himself despite the hopeful air he had just put on. The memory of stomping around the hallways of the castle as a kid also brought something else to mind, something he promised someone long ago. He looked at the piece of Lissa's staff one more time, holding it into the air as if expecting the light to reveal a hidden message on it or something. When he had no such luck, he scooped a sharp rock up from the ground and started hitting the staff, seemingly to give his hands something to do. Finally, he dropped the rock and held up the implement once more, revealing hastily carved out letters that read, “LISSA.”

With a scolding from a lifetime ago echoing in his mind, he said, “mom, may I go on this adventure with my cousins? Brady will be there too, so we won't get hurt too bad.”

A moment later, his face fell and he put the staff in his pocket. “What, did you think it would actually respond? Idiot...”

He may not have gotten any response, but he managed to keep the promise he made his mom all those years ago, and it was the thought that counted.

 

 


End file.
